Lyle Alzado, who became a crusader against steroid use when he was found to have brain cancer a year ago, died yesterday at age 43.The NFL's defensive player of the year in 1977, he played 14 years for the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Raiders, retiring after the 1985 season. He tried a brief comeback in 1990 that ended in Raiders training camp.Alzado attributed his brain cancer to steroid use, but there is no proof linking the two. He said he began using the drug in 1969 and spent $20,000 to $30,000 a year on steroids in the days before the NFL tested players for the performance-enhancing drugs.

You don't have to be a heavy drinker to suffer from liver problems. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease has become the most common chronic liver disease in all developed countries, including the United States, says Dr. Srinevas K. Reddy, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a liver surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The disease is associated with overeating rather than drinking too much alcohol. The number of people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is steadily increasing and is on pace to become the most common cause of primary liver cancer and liver transplantation by 2025, Reddy says.

Scientists have detected a molecular "hot spot" that is strongly linked to liver cancer, one of the most common and lethal malignancies in the world. The spot is a tiny region of a single gene where toxins that infiltrate the liver seem to home in, sabotaging the gene and touching off cancerous growth.The discovery, which is reported in two papers appearing today in the journal Nature, is the first persuasive example yet found of the exact way toxins and other risk factors attack DNA, the basic genetic material in cells, and cause cancer.

Hepatitis C has long been a problem with a low rate of cure. But new drug therapies are in use and others are on the horizon, according to Dr. Paul J. Thuluvath, chief of gastroenterology at Mercy Medical Center and the medical director of the Institute for Digestive Health & Liver Disease at Mercy. That has meant better liver health for millions in this country and around the globe. What is hepatitis C and what causes it? Hepatitis C (HCV) is a virus that causes liver disease in a significant number of the U.S. and world population.

This Christmas season was sweeter for Tanika Thompson and Lynn Neubauer, two Maryland women who thought they wouldn't live long enough to celebrate it. Both received a diagnosis of liver cancer - Thompson in late 2003 and Neubauer last January - a lethal disease that had spread from other organs in their bodies. Both marked their lives in days and months, not years. But a new procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center that sends microscopic beads of radiation directly to tumors gave them both new leases on life.

CHICAGO -- A new drug looks poised to become the first effective treatment for liver cancer, one of the deadliest and most common cancers in the world, whose incidence has been rising in the United States, doctors said yesterday. In a large clinical trial, the drug, called Nexavar, extended the lives of patients by almost three months, or 44 percent. While that is far from a cure, experts say it represents a breakthrough after years of efforts to find a drug that works. "We did not have anything for these patients," said Dr. Josep M. Llovet, one of the principal investigators in the trial.

By Janene Holzberg and Janene Holzberg,Special to The Sun | August 21, 2008

Those who knew Anna Tomalis best say the way she went about her life near the end truly captured her spirit. The 13-year-old Clarksville resident, who had been battling a rare form of liver cancer for three years, was struggling physically in recent days. But she resolved to press on with life, managing to go horseback riding and take in a movie. "Anna lived life to the fullest," said her father, Ron Tomalis. "She had every reason to not do something, but she always found ways to overcome her discomfort."

You don't have to be a heavy drinker to suffer from liver problems. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease has become the most common chronic liver disease in all developed countries, including the United States, says Dr. Srinevas K. Reddy, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a liver surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The disease is associated with overeating rather than drinking too much alcohol. The number of people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is steadily increasing and is on pace to become the most common cause of primary liver cancer and liver transplantation by 2025, Reddy says.

Babrak Karmal, 67, a Soviet-backed leader who ruled Afghanistan in the 1980s during that country's bitter civil war, died of liver cancer on Sunday in Moscow. One of the world's poorest nations, Afghanistan was in turmoil from the day Karmal came to power in 1979 until the day he resigned in 1986.Pub Date: 12/07/96

On April 19, 2006, MARK D. GIBBS, after a brief battle with liver cancer, he was 43 years old. He is survived by all who love him, in us he will live until we meet again. Memorial services were held, both in Jacksonville and Key West, Florida, attended by many friends and relatives.

Columbia-based Celsion has deal with Japan firm Columbia-based drug maker Celsion Corp. said yesterday that Japanese pharmaceutical firm Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd has agreed to pay up to $20.5 million in licensing fees for the rights to market Celsion's liver cancer treatment, ThermoDox, to the Japanese market. ThermoDox is in a phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. for liver cancer as well as a phase 2 trial for recurrent chest wall breast cancer. Yakult will pay Celsion $2.5 million, followed by $18 million once ThermoDox gains approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to treat primary liver cancer.

By Stephanie Desmon and Stephanie Desmon,stephanie.desmon@baltsun.com | November 19, 2008

Twenty-five years ago, a diagnosis of AIDS was a nearly immediate death sentence. But now that patients with the AIDS virus are living longer, doctors are discovering a new set of complications: People with HIV have a much higher risk of developing certain cancers - lung, liver, head and neck, to name a few - and doctors fear that a cancer epidemic among this group could be coming. Researchers in Maryland, home to one of the nation's largest AIDS populations per capita, are among the leaders in an effort to solve what has become something of a medical mystery.

By Janene Holzberg and Janene Holzberg,Special to The Sun | August 21, 2008

Those who knew Anna Tomalis best say the way she went about her life near the end truly captured her spirit. The 13-year-old Clarksville resident, who had been battling a rare form of liver cancer for three years, was struggling physically in recent days. But she resolved to press on with life, managing to go horseback riding and take in a movie. "Anna lived life to the fullest," said her father, Ron Tomalis. "She had every reason to not do something, but she always found ways to overcome her discomfort."

Janice Marie Stelmach, a retired secretary who had beaten back cancer four times over a 23-year period, died of complications from liver cancer Monday at her home in Mount Airy. She was 66. Janice Waltrup was born in Washington to Elizabeth Waltrup and Charles Waltrup. She graduated in 1959 from Seton Keough High School in Baltimore. She worked as a secretary for a shipping company and a paintbrush manufacturer before she married George Stelmach in 1963. The couple lived in Virginia for a short time, then settled in Brooklyn Park, where they lived for 28 years.

Maryland : Biotechnology FDA approves Celsion study design Celsion Corp., the Columbia biotech, announced yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its study design for a final clinical trial of ThermoDox to treat primary liver cancer. Celsion said it would begin a 600-patient trial at 40 sites, including a number in Asia, where the incidence of liver cancer is higher than it is in the United States. ThermoDox, a heat-sensitive encapsulation of an approved cancer drug, will be tested in combination with radio frequency ablation, a liver cancer treatment in which electrical signals are used to heat the tumor.

CHICAGO -- A new drug looks poised to become the first effective treatment for liver cancer, one of the deadliest and most common cancers in the world, whose incidence has been rising in the United States, doctors said yesterday. In a large clinical trial, the drug, called Nexavar, extended the lives of patients by almost three months, or 44 percent. While that is far from a cure, experts say it represents a breakthrough after years of efforts to find a drug that works. "We did not have anything for these patients," said Dr. Josep M. Llovet, one of the principal investigators in the trial.

Arnold Feuerman,81, an inventor and former chairman of Arnold Automotive Group, one of the nation's largest auto dealers, died Friday in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., of liver cancer.Willi Millowitsch,90, one of Germany's best-known comic actors and a fixture at the Cologne carnival, died Monday in Cologne.Fred Roti,78, a former Chicago alderman who was convicted of political corruption, died of lung cancer Monday in Chicago.

Columbia-based Celsion has deal with Japan firm Columbia-based drug maker Celsion Corp. said yesterday that Japanese pharmaceutical firm Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd has agreed to pay up to $20.5 million in licensing fees for the rights to market Celsion's liver cancer treatment, ThermoDox, to the Japanese market. ThermoDox is in a phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. for liver cancer as well as a phase 2 trial for recurrent chest wall breast cancer. Yakult will pay Celsion $2.5 million, followed by $18 million once ThermoDox gains approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to treat primary liver cancer.

On April 19, 2006, MARK D. GIBBS, after a brief battle with liver cancer, he was 43 years old. He is survived by all who love him, in us he will live until we meet again. Memorial services were held, both in Jacksonville and Key West, Florida, attended by many friends and relatives.